STANFORD — After a slow start, Stanford took command late in the first half and rolled to an 80-48 victory over lowly Washington State on Wednesday before a sparse crowd at Maples Pavilion.

The Cardinal shot 57.7 percent from the field and broke the game open with a 31-7 run that spanned the final seven minutes of the first half and the first four of the second.

“Our guys did a good job figuring it out in the first half, and we were focused in the second,” Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We did a good job defensively and were able to capitalize on the offensive end.”

Stanford’s long-armed zone defense flummoxed the Cougars, who shot 37 percent and were without their top scorer, injured guard DaVonte Lacy.

Cardinal wing Anthony Brown sparkled for the second consecutive game. Three days after leading Stanford with 24 points in the victory at Oregon, the redshirt junior had 15 points in 22 minutes.

Three other Cardinal players reached double figures, including forward Josh Huestis (15 points), who sported a buzz cut after letting his hair grow for the past six months.

“The last few games, I was putting too much pressure on myself,” Huestis said. “(The haircut) signals a new beginning, and it looks like it worked.”

After collecting its second victory in four days, the Cardinal (11-5, 2-2 Pac-12) has a chance to generate midseason momentum: It should be favored in three of its next five games, starting Saturday against Washington.

“The last two games have pushed us in the right direction,” Huestis said. “Now we have to keep moving that way.”

From a resume-building standpoint, however, this was a no-win situation for Stanford. The victory does nothing to improve its NCAA tournament profile — not even a 32-point victory — but a loss to the Cougars (8-9, 1-4) would have been a basketball-size ink stain.

And for 13 minutes, it appeared the Cardinal would have all it could handle from a team that was outscored by 54 points in its two previous league road games.

Stanford and WSU exchanged baskets early, with the Cougars eventually inching to a 24-20 lead with 7:11 remaining in the half.

But Brown’s three-point play energized the Cardinal, which reeled off seven consecutive points.

A 3-pointer by the Cougars did little to halt Stanford’s surge. Brown connected from long range, prompting a WSU timeout with 3:05 left.

The post-game handshake between coaches Jack Del Rio of the Raiders and Andy Reid of the Chiefs eventually came off Thursday night, but it seemed for a while that there’s enough bad blood between the two that it might not happen. Once time ran out in the Chiefs’ 21-13 win that gave K.C. a leg up in the AFC West...